Rush v. Dirk, Pratt, & Lerxst

[Orbert]

I put on Clockwork Angels yesterday for the first time in a while.  Listened to the whole album, loud.  Wow!  It's a given that the later the album, the less time I've had to absorb it, and some of the later ones never really got into regular rotation, not like back in the 70's or even the 80's.  So this was not totally unlike checking it out again for the first time.  Has it been nearly 10 years?  Damn!

It is of course packed with solid musicianship, solid writing, and all the amazing stuff that makes Rush one of the best bands of all time.  In fact, "packed" and "solid" have multiple meanings here.  The music overall feels very dense.  Alex's guitar sounds are very compressed, covering a lot of sonic range.  Neil's percussion as usual fills its space, and Geddy's bass and keyboards provide a solid foundation.

Another word that comes to mind is "mature".  Rush continued to evolve musically for their entire run, so logically this final album is their "final form".  So much music, so well produced, so refined.  I keep things on Shuffle in my car, and today the live version of "What You're Doing" came up, and I briefly considered how much their sound evolved over the years, yet still kept something at its core that could always be identified as Rush.  What an amazing band!  ♫♫

[HOF]

I put on Clockwork Angels yesterday for the first time in a while.  Listened to the whole album, loud.  Wow!  It's a given that the later the album, the less time I've had to absorb it, and some of the later ones never really got into regular rotation, not like back in the 70's or even the 80's.  So this was not totally unlike checking it out again for the first time.  Has it been nearly 10 years?  Damn!

It is of course packed with solid musicianship, solid writing, and all the amazing stuff that makes Rush one of the best bands of all time.  In fact, "packed" and "solid" have multiple meanings here.  The music overall feels very dense.  Alex's guitar sounds are very compressed, covering a lot of sonic range.  Neil's percussion as usual fills its space, and Geddy's bass and keyboards provide a solid foundation.

Another word that comes to mind is "mature".  Rush continued to evolve musically for their entire run, so logically this final album is their "final form".  So much music, so well produced, so refined.  I keep things on Shuffle in my car, and today the live version of "What You're Doing" came up, and I briefly considered how much their sound evolved over the years, yet still kept something at its core that could always be identified as Rush.  What an amazing band!  ♫♫

The music is a bit too dense for my liking. Would love to hear this one remixed to be a bit less sludgy. It’s a good album, but I rarely choose to listen to it.

[TAC]

I actually just listened to this about a month ago for the first time in years. It's actually an excellent album musically. I don't remember Geddy's vocals being an issue when it came out, but on my recent listen, I found the vocals distractingly limited.

[Orbert]

Yeah, the vocals did stand out as limited and distracting.  I didn't mention that before because I couldn't think of a way to phrase it in a positive way, and I wanted to keep everything positive.

When it came out, I think we were all following the evolution of Geddy's voice and this was just the next stop.  But if this is the "final form" of his voice, then yeah, it's definitely not what it once was.  Hey, getting old sucks.

[Orbert]

The music is a bit too dense for my liking. Would love to hear this one remixed to be a bit less sludgy. It’s a good album, but I rarely choose to listen to it.

Same here.  But I was digging around for something to put on, and it had been a while, so WTF.  I focused on listening to the music, and tried not to let the production and Geddy's voice take away from the amazing playing.

[pg1067]

The music is a bit too dense for my liking.

Agree.  A lot.  21 century Rush was full of that sort of thing.  Alex's playing was VERY chord heavy and light on single note melodic lines and clear arpeggiation.  Geddy also went heavy on playing chords instead of single note lines.  CA and S&A are very low on my rankings, with CA having only 3 songs I really like and S&A having only 2-3.

[TAC]

I don't mind CA, but S&A is my least favorite Rush album, despite it's awesome sound.

[gazinwales]

I put on Clockwork Angels yesterday for the first time in a while.  Listened to the whole album, loud.  Wow!  It's a given that the later the album, the less time I've had to absorb it, and some of the later ones never really got into regular rotation, not like back in the 70's or even the 80's.  So this was not totally unlike checking it out again for the first time.  Has it been nearly 10 years?  Damn!

It is of course packed with solid musicianship, solid writing, and all the amazing stuff that makes Rush one of the best bands of all time.  In fact, "packed" and "solid" have multiple meanings here.  The music overall feels very dense.  Alex's guitar sounds are very compressed, covering a lot of sonic range.  Neil's percussion as usual fills its space, and Geddy's bass and keyboards provide a solid foundation.

Another word that comes to mind is "mature".  Rush continued to evolve musically for their entire run, so logically this final album is their "final form".  So much music, so well produced, so refined.  I keep things on Shuffle in my car, and today the live version of "What You're Doing" came up, and I briefly considered how much their sound evolved over the years, yet still kept something at its core that could always be identified as Rush.  What an amazing band!  ♫♫

The music is a bit too dense for my liking. Would love to hear this one remixed to be a bit less sludgy. It’s a good album, but I rarely choose to listen to it.

It's almost unlistenable for my ears, way too dense, loud and brick walled to the max, as bad if not worse as the original Vapor Trails.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I put on Clockwork Angels yesterday for the first time in a while.  Listened to the whole album, loud.  Wow!  It's a given that the later the album, the less time I've had to absorb it, and some of the later ones never really got into regular rotation, not like back in the 70's or even the 80's.  So this was not totally unlike checking it out again for the first time.  Has it been nearly 10 years?  Damn!

It is of course packed with solid musicianship, solid writing, and all the amazing stuff that makes Rush one of the best bands of all time.  In fact, "packed" and "solid" have multiple meanings here.  The music overall feels very dense.  Alex's guitar sounds are very compressed, covering a lot of sonic range.  Neil's percussion as usual fills its space, and Geddy's bass and keyboards provide a solid foundation.

Another word that comes to mind is "mature".  Rush continued to evolve musically for their entire run, so logically this final album is their "final form".  So much music, so well produced, so refined.  I keep things on Shuffle in my car, and today the live version of "What You're Doing" came up, and I briefly considered how much their sound evolved over the years, yet still kept something at its core that could always be identified as Rush.  What an amazing band!  ♫♫

The music is a bit too dense for my liking. Would love to hear this one remixed to be a bit less sludgy. It’s a good album, but I rarely choose to listen to it.

It's almost unlistenable for my ears, way too dense, loud and brick walled to the max, as bad if not worse as the original Vapor Trails.

One of these days I'm going to have a go at remastering Clockwork Angels.

[King Postwhore]

I would love that.

[TAC]

Maybe he can fix Power Windows too.

[King Postwhore]

Maybe he can fix Power Windows too.

You shut your man hole you pleabian.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Maybe he can fix Power Windows too.

I'm almost affraid to ask what you would want me to do with it.

[Lethean]

I think Clockwork Angels is awesome.

[King Postwhore]

Maybe he can fix Power Windows too.

I'm almost affraid to ask what you would want me to do with it.

Just punch him in the nuts and wish him a happy new year.

[gazinwales]

Maybe he can fix Power Windows too.

No need, it's one of the reference CD's I am going to use when I buy a new pair of floor speakers 

[KevShmev]

The loudness of Clockwork Angels is definitely a bit irksome, and the live versions do not work for me due to Geddy's live vocals being rough on those last few tours, but it's definitely one of their best albums ever from a songwriting standpoint.  Those songs deserved a better mix.

[pg1067]

Maybe he can fix Power Windows too.

The problems with Power Windows aren't fixable by remastering (or remixing).  GUP, on the other hand, could greatly benefit from a remix.

[KevShmev]

Moe = Joe
Curly and Larry - TAC and pg1067

[King Postwhore]

This is spot on. 

[nick_z]

Maybe he can fix Power Windows too.

The problems with Power Windows aren't fixable by remastering (or remixing).  GUP, on the other hand, could greatly benefit from a remix.

You are correct, in that if there are no problems, there is nothing to fix 

(I do however agree on GUP...I love the album, but the sound/mix is not my favorite)

[Architeuthis]

I think Clockwork Angels is awesome.

The Wreckers is a criminally underrated song. That should be a staple on regular airplay rock stations. Same with Headlong Flight and The Garden.

[Lethean]

The Wreckers is a great track. The Anarchist is one of my favorites as well. More or less the whole album aside from Wish Them Well, and that song is fine.  Just not great to me like the others.

[Cool Chris]

I think I had The Wreckers at #14 on my Top Rush Songs countdown, the second highest post-MP song on my list.

[TAC]

This recording sounds AMAZING for its age. I really hope the whole show surfaces soon! Is there any information regarding the setlist?

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rush/1976/randhurst-twin-ice-arena-mount-prospect-il-3bdb0cc8.html

Thanks! Looking at the song stats for ITIGB, I see it's listed as having been performed three times. The second show is REALLY interesting, with performances of "Making Memories" and "The Fountain Of Lamneth". Surely this is *THE* Holy Grail show for early Rush bootleg collectors, assuming the setlist is accurate. It looks like a headlining COS Tour show, and I'm sure there weren't many of those.

-Marc.

The Randhurst show was posted 10 days ago...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIrDnJ2wbE4

[The Letter M]

This recording sounds AMAZING for its age. I really hope the whole show surfaces soon! Is there any information regarding the setlist?

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rush/1976/randhurst-twin-ice-arena-mount-prospect-il-3bdb0cc8.html

Thanks! Looking at the song stats for ITIGB, I see it's listed as having been performed three times. The second show is REALLY interesting, with performances of "Making Memories" and "The Fountain Of Lamneth". Surely this is *THE* Holy Grail show for early Rush bootleg collectors, assuming the setlist is accurate. It looks like a headlining COS Tour show, and I'm sure there weren't many of those.

-Marc.

The Randhurst show was posted 10 days ago...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIrDnJ2wbE4

Thanks for sharing! I'll have to listen to this later today! Who would've thought that in 2022, we'd get to hear a "new" complete COS Tour recording?! Makes me hope that some day we will get full soundboard recordings for tours that don't have them in circulation yet, or other such rare recordings.

-Marc.

[Setlist Scotty]

Very cool! Listening now. Only one thing isn't adding up - the date listed for this show is from the tour supporting 2112. I remember distinctly reading that the Down the Tubes tour ended in January of 1976, and this confirms it:
https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/rush/tourdates.php#CARESSOFSTEEL

Plus it sounds more like the guy who announces the beginning of the show says "Mount Pleasant" not "Mount Prospect" and the above list of tour dates shows they played a Mount Pleasant on April 1, 1975 - in the middle of the FBN tour. When Ged intros Lakeside Park, he merely says it's from "our Caress of Steel album" - not "our new/latest album". So it's a bit confusing as to when this show actually took place. Unless of course it's from the 2112 tour and the 2112 tracks haven't been included.

edit: I've been reading the comments for this recording, and here's some interesting responses made when someone else also questioned the date/tour:

There's no question this was recorded on 3/5/1976.  The setlist throws serious doubt on the belief "the 2112 tour" had actually began at this point in time.

My guess is that their residency at the Starwood in West Hollywood may have been when 2112 material was introduced. Four dates with all their equipment set up would have given the band and crew production rehearsals during the day to get the show where they wanted it. Poster from the Starwood shows uses their portrait from 2112. I'd say this concert is a CoS show.

We have to remember that most of the starting and ending dates of the early tours are speculative and based on poor documentation. It seems possible such definitive dates may just be arbitrary afterthoughts and weren't really "set" things by the band until around when the ATWAS tour clearly ended in June 1977, and the ATFK tour started in August 1977. The band toured so much in the early days, it all kind of blurs together. The "official" dates have even confusingly been changed a few times as well. The official Rush website and the "Wandering The Face of the Earth" book are quite different, but both are officially recognized sources. Though both sources currently list March 5 under the 2112 tour. The Rush website is known for having a fair bit of errors and omissions, and we know the "Wandering" book was very well researched and improved upon a lot of the mistakes, etc from the Rush site's listing in regards to gig dates and locations. The fact is, no one knows for certain about the early tours' date boundaries, despite what is presented with the various sources. The Wandering book even notes it is hard to nail it down precisely.

I easily fall with the line of thinking of AnalogKidAudioVideo and Belexes in that this feels very likely to be the COS tour. Rush took off from touring following January 10 of 1976, the supposed end of the COS tour, and didn't hit the road again until February 6. This month of downtime the band recorded the 2112 album, though the album was not released until some time in very late March (no one knows exactly when, just sometime between March 20-something and April 1). With close analysis of the setlist here at the Randhurst Arena, and comparing details closely with the Rockford '75 tape, this is clearly a COS setlist. I think it makes sense the band just hit the road again and continued trying to promote COS a bit longer with the COS setlists until closer to the new album release. In the eyes of the band the 2112 tour would've started when they introduced the new material to the setlist.

I can't imagine any 2112 track would've been played at a gig preceding this one, and then left out again during this concert. If anything, I would've expected an early performance of Something For Nothing would have been put into the set, which easily could've been done versus something like Bald or Fly By Night. The fact they would even be playing an infruquently played song like Bald over a new track like SFN speaks for itself. AKAV previously spoke about the Starwood gigs between March 15 and 18, as explained by Belexes, which I also feel would possibly be the "proper" start of the 2112 tour. We do know the standard 2112 tour setlist was implemented by March 26 at the latest, and research based on the consecutive gigs co-billed with Styx and opened with Sutherland Brothers and Quiver, it would indicate they were likely at least playing the 2112 setlist as early as March 21.

Anyway, I could go on but I didn't intend to make too much of a long-winded response. I've discussed this in greater detail elsewhere. I really just wanted to summarize the idea here since a lot of people are going to be bringing up the topic of the tour in question, and will run across these comments.

Plus the apparent taper himself states emphatically that this show was on March 5, 1976. So maybe everyone's had their Rush history off a bit from the early days...

[ytserush]

I put on Clockwork Angels yesterday for the first time in a while.  Listened to the whole album, loud.  Wow!  It's a given that the later the album, the less time I've had to absorb it, and some of the later ones never really got into regular rotation, not like back in the 70's or even the 80's.  So this was not totally unlike checking it out again for the first time.  Has it been nearly 10 years?  Damn!

It is of course packed with solid musicianship, solid writing, and all the amazing stuff that makes Rush one of the best bands of all time.  In fact, "packed" and "solid" have multiple meanings here.  The music overall feels very dense.  Alex's guitar sounds are very compressed, covering a lot of sonic range.  Neil's percussion as usual fills its space, and Geddy's bass and keyboards provide a solid foundation.

Another word that comes to mind is "mature".  Rush continued to evolve musically for their entire run, so logically this final album is their "final form".  So much music, so well produced, so refined.  I keep things on Shuffle in my car, and today the live version of "What You're Doing" came up, and I briefly considered how much their sound evolved over the years, yet still kept something at its core that could always be identified as Rush.  What an amazing band!  ♫♫

I just watched the Clockwork Angels Live DVD again recently and I just marvel at the performance. It might be my favorite live DVD of theirs but there are a bunch of contenders. That band never let me down. Ever.

[ytserush]

I think Clockwork Angels is awesome.

The Wreckers is a criminally underrated song. That should be a staple on regular airplay rock stations. Same with Headlong Flight and The Garden.

Totally.  There are a lot of Rush songs like that.

[ytserush]

Yeah. There isn't a ton of documented information about that period which still relies on a lot of guesswork. Even at that point the band still didn't know if they were going to go down in flames.

[frogprog]

Looking forward to a great tribute to The Professor tonight! Anyone else able to attend?

[Nick]

Looking forward to a great tribute to The Professor tonight! Anyone else able to attend?

Yup, got my tickets yesterday. Was kinda surprised nothing popped up on the official site or StubHub as far as decent tickets were concerned, so ended up in a back corner essentially.

[frogprog]

I think tickets sold very well. Much better than any of the other post covid shows. Enjoy the evening!!

[frogprog]

Really fun evening of Rush music last night! the Keswick was packed with die hard Rush fans, many of them sporting their really cool Rush gear. I broke out my R40 jersey that I don't wear very often.
The first set was YYNOT performing some great Rush covers as well as a few originals. I was really impressed with Patty, the singer. She had a very powerful voice and brought great energy to the classic songs I have loved for so long. She had a great stage presence and danced around all night, really looking like she was loving it.
The second set kicked off with John Wesley and Frank Bello joining the band (drummer and singer) for 2 songs. Next was Joe Bergamini  drums for 2 songs followed by Seven Antonopolos who was a beast on drums. Next up was Jason Bittner who was really powerful on the drums. When you see top level musicians playing Rush you can really see just how hard this music is to replicate properly! Somewhere in here was Jon Dinklage who guested on violin for a really great version of Losing It. The last guest drummer was none other than Mr. Mike Portnoy who garnered a great crowd response. I could feel his anxiety as they kicked off 2112. He motioned to the YYNOT guys  that he wanted to have a visual on the syncopated beginning and they both turned around to play to the crowd! I'm sure he didn't want to be the guy that messed up a NP part! It turned out great though. Michael Mossberg came out and said a few words about donating to Cedar Sinai as well as the bass player giving a few shout outs but it would have been nice to have a few NP visuals and maybe have the guests say a few words about Neil. I wanted to get a shirt but the merch line was crazy going in and even crazier after the show as all the musicians were making themselves available to meet the fans. I will just make a donation on line.
Overall a great evening and i would definitely see YYNOT  next time they make their way through the area.

[The Letter M]

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/yynot/2023/keswick-theatre-glenside-pa-13bc756d.html

Setlist for anyone who is curious. If this was recorded, audio and/or video, I would probably buy it to check it out. Seems like it was a good show!

-Marc.